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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNYT, today: Mueller's FBI uses "shock and awe" -- and PICKED THE LOCK on Manafort's door.
This was not some polite, through the lawyers, approach. Mueller wanted to wake Manafort up, literally and figuratively, to the seriousness of his situation.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/18/us/politics/mueller-russia-investigation.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
WASHINGTON Paul J. Manafort was in bed early one morning in July when federal agents bearing a search warrant picked the lock on his front door and raided his Virginia home. They took binders stuffed with documents and copied his computer files, looking for evidence that Mr. Manafort, President Trumps former campaign chairman, set up secret offshore bank accounts. They even photographed the expensive suits in his closet.
The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, then followed the house search with a warning: His prosecutors told Mr. Manafort they planned to indict him, said two people close to the investigation.
The moves against Mr. Manafort are just a glimpse of the aggressive tactics used by Mr. Mueller and his team of prosecutors in the four months since taking over the Justice Departments investigation into Russias attempts to disrupt last years election, according to lawyers, witnesses and American officials who have described the approach. Dispensing with the plodding pace typical of many white-collar investigations, Mr. Muellers team has used what some describe as shock-and-awe tactics to intimidate witnesses and potential targets of the inquiry.
SNIP
To get the warrant, Mr. Muellers team had to show probable cause that Mr. Manaforts home contained evidence of a crime. To be allowed to pick the lock and enter the home unannounced, prosecutors had to persuade a federal judge that Mr. Manafort was likely to destroy evidence.
Said Mr. Gurulé, the former federal prosecutor, Clearly they didnt trust him.
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,560 posts)They are legal and entirely appropriate.
K&R
Hekate
(90,616 posts)MFM008
(19,803 posts)Make me smile.
ImpeachTheGOP
(89 posts)Good for the g-men.
Thrill
(19,178 posts)Tatiana
(14,167 posts)Mueller is probably one of few prosecutors who is willing to do what is necessary to get to the truth.
C_U_L8R
(44,996 posts)let's pick that lock.
MFM008
(19,803 posts)........